Overcoming ‘Hell on Earth’: Survivor’s 20-Year fight against broken system, monster stepdad
A brave Queensland survivor has exposed the systemic failures in her fight for justice against her stepfather who manipulated her into thinking sexual abuse happened to all naughty kids.
Too scared to sleep, a little girl named Chloe often lay awake at night waiting for a monster to creep into her room and ‘punish’ her, intently listening out for the sound of closing doors followed by footsteps.
Regardless of how hard she tried to clean her room, stay out of trouble, or get all the answers right on a quiz, her stepfather’s sick and perverted house rules were rigged.
Despite the Queensland Police Service and the Department of Child Safety being aware of the sexual abuse, Chloe was forced to live with the man in Toowoomba and on the Gold Coast until she was old enough to plan her escape.
Now as an adult, a heavily pregnant Chloe Moncrieff confronted her stepfather in court after fighting for police to reopen her case in 2021 - 15 years after Robert Zeljezic made admissions and decades after she went to her mum for help.
“I’m standing here today, standing up for the little girl no one protected,” she read from her victim impact statement.
“20 years this has taken, my determination and strength has been underestimated for far too long.
“You didn’t entirely break me, while you hurt my soul, took my childhood and my family, I am no longer controlled by you or the trauma.
“I am taking back my life.”
Mrs Moncrieff, 33, said she was manipulated into thinking sexual abuse happened to all naughty kids.
Every day she lived in fear because any perceived slight would lead to a “grounding,” which included molestation.
“It would start with him taking everything off me, and then at night-time, he would come into my room,” she said.
“One time I had a single pencil shaving next to the bin in my room, and because it wasn’t completely spotless, that was not okay.
“He would (also) write out sheets of paper that I’d have to answer, like maths questions, and I swear I’d get them all right, but he would somehow say one was wrong.”
Zeljezic, 52, was jailed for six months in September, after he was sentenced to a four-year jail term, suspended for five years.
The court heard some of the mitigating factors of his sentence was his lack of criminal history and that he was deemed a low-risk reoffender.
In May, the Darling Downs man pleaded guilty to six charges, which included rape, indecent treatment, and repeated sexual conduct with a child.
Mrs Moncrieff said Zeljezic was in her life from the age of one, and she couldn’t remember a life before the abuse began at age seven.
The court heard Mrs Moncrieff first went to her mum for help, but nothing changed.
The Mrs Moncrieff she was nine-years-old when that happened, and because nothing was done to protect her, she began to doubt her reality, was manipulated into minimising the abuse, and blamed herself.
“It took me a further three years from there to build up the courage again to tell someone,” she said.
At 12, Mrs Moncrieff said she told her mother “if it happens one more time, I’m going to the police,” and “again, she (mum) did nothing.”.
The next week, Ms Moncrieff told her best friend, who went to their teacher, who went to the police in 2006.
The Toowoomba District Court heard that rather than charge Zeljezic, police deferred the case to Child Safety, who removed him from the home and organised an intervention.
Zeljezic then underwent 27 sessions with a psychologist, where he admitted to sexually abusing and being sexually attracted to his stepdaughter.
Mrs Moncrieff said she was 14 when Zeljezic returned to her home, and although the sexual abuse ended, the psychological ‘discipline’ increased.
“It was hell on Earth,” she said.
“He was like a martyr, a drill sergeant, because he wasn’t able to sexually abuse me anymore, I think he took it out on me worse.”
When Zeljezic began forbidding her from sleeping, Mrs Moncrieff said that was when she knew she had to find a way out and began researching ‘how to move out of home’.
At 16, Mrs Moncrieff left Toowoomba with nothing but two suitcases, $160 in her pocket, and a best friend on the Gold Coast who had a mum who became her own.
Given her experience with the justice system, Ms Moncrieff said she understood why so many survivor-victims chose not to pursue closure through the courts or report to police.
“Yes, the justice system has progressed in some ways, but it really has let me down,” she said.
“It’s a struggle to fight for yourself when the systems that are supposed to fight for you don’t, not like they’re supposed to do.
“Especially by Child Safety, there’s no way in hell… they should have allowed him back in the house.
“Its sole purpose is child protection, and they couldn’t and didn’t do that, and it’s not like we’re talking about 50 years ago.”
A Department of Child Safety spokeswoman said it could not comment on individual cases, however stressed the system had changed extensively over the past two decades.
“Significant legislative reforms have occurred in the reporting, handling, and prevention of child sexual abuse,” she said.
“Where child safety staff reasonably believe a child or young person has been sexually abused, we are legally required to immediately notify police.
“There has also been improved co-ordination between agencies involved in child protection.”
As the case dragged on before the courts, Ms Moncrieff said she was forced to relive her trauma almost every month for five years, and had to call the Director of Public Prosecutions for updates.
“I assumed they would be a lot more contactable, especially with a case like this,” she said.
“I was never fully aware of what was going on.
“Knowing what was happening and being upfront and honest would have helped me a lot because you’re left to wonder ‘why? What happened? Is this my fault? Maybe I shouldn’t have even done this, should I stop it now?
Ms Moncrieff said after years of uncertainty, she found out Zeljezic would be pleading guilty just hours before it happened.
“I was never able to hear him say in person that he is guilty. I feel like I was robbed of that.”
She also said Zeljezic penned his ‘apology’ letter on the day of his sentence, minutes after reading her victim impact statement.
“I don’t think he should have been allowed to do that. It didn’t seem genuine at all, it was just a checklist of all the points I’d made,” she said.
The court also allowed a subpoena for Zeljezic’s legal team to access her counselling records, forcing Ms Moncrieff to hire a lawyer to fight it - a year-long battle she ultimately lost.
She said it felt like Zeljezic had again violated her, this time her privacy as an adult.
An Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) spokesman said the department acknowledged Mrs Moncrieff’s frustration with the process, however said a number of legal issues were at play.
“There were a number of applications and legal issues that needed to be resolved before the case could proceed,” he said.
“(Also) the matter being heard in a circuit centre where a court only sits at various times throughout the year also contributed to the overall delay.”
He said a number of ODPP staff were in contact with Mrs Moncrieff over the years after each ‘event’, however, “not all information could be shared... due to her role as a witness”.
Despite her experience with the justice system, Mrs Moncrieff encouraged others to report their abusers if they felt like it was an important part of their healing journey.
“They need to know it’s going to be an extremely long process and it’s not going to be over in a couple of years, but it is doable,” she said.
“You just need to be extremely strong to withstand some of the blows that you’ll get throughout.
“Everyone deserves closure.”
Ms Moncrieff said survivors shouldn’t feel like they need to “go to the grave” weighted down by someone else’s secret.
“I would tell them it’s okay not to be okay and that just talking about it, it genuinely does help,” she said.
“It might feel quite confronting, the trauma being brought back up, but eventually you will feel lighter.
“Trust your gut, trust that what you know is actually happening, and that you don’t always have to get acceptance and approval from your parents to speak up.”
The Queensland Police Service has yet to respond to an inquiry.
Zeljezic will be released from jail early next year.
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Originally published as Overcoming ‘Hell on Earth’: Survivor’s 20-Year fight against broken system, monster stepdad
